"The Medal" was answered by the same authors who replied to "Absalom and
Achitophel," as if the Whigs had taken in sober earnest the advice which
Dryden bestowed on them in the preface to that satire. And moreover (as
he there expressly recommends) they railed at him abundantly, without a
glimmering of wit to enliven their scurrility. Hickeringill, a crazy
fanatic, began the attack with a sort of mad poem, called "The
Mushroom." It was written and sent to press the very day on which "The
Medal" appeared; a circumstance on which the author valued himself so
highly, as to ascribe it to divine inspiration.[12] With more labour,
and equal issue, Samuel Pordage, a minor poet of the day, produced "The
Medal Reversed;" for which, and his former aggression, Dryden brands
him, in a single line of the Second Part of "Absalom and Achitophel," as

  "Lame Mephibosheth, the wizard's[13] son."

There also appeared "The Loyal Medal Vindicated," and a piece entitled
"Dryden's Satire to his Muse," imputed to Lord Somers, but which, in
conversation with Pope, he positively disavowed. All these, and many
other pieces, the fruits of incensed and almost frantic party fury, are
marked by the most coarse and virulent abuse. The events in our author's
life were few, and his morals, generally speaking, irreproachable; so
that the topics for the malevolence of his antagonists were both scanty
and strained. But they ceased not, with the true pertinacity of angry
dulness, to repeat, in prose and verse, in couplet, ballad, and
madrigal, the same unvaried accusations, amounting in substance to the
following: That Dryden had been bred a puritan and republican; that he
had written an elegy on Cromwell (which one wily adversary actually
reprinted); that he had been in poverty at the Restoration; that Lady
Elizabeth Dryden's character was tarnished by the circumstances
attending their nuptials; that Dryden had written the "Essay on Satire,"
in which the king was libelled; that he had been beaten by three men in
Rose-alley; finally, that he was a Tory, and a tool of arbitrary power.
This cuckoo song, garnished with the burden of _Bayes_ and _Poet
Squab_,[14] was rung in the ear of the public again and again, and with
an obstinacy which may convince us how little there was to be said, when
that little was so often repeated. Feeble as these attacks were, their
number, like that of the gnats described by Spenser,[15] seems to have
irritated Dryden to exert the power of his satire, and, like the blast
of the northern wind, to sweep away at once these clamorous and busy,
though ineffectual assailants. Two, in particular, claimed distinction
from the nameless crowd; Settle, Dryden's ancient foe, and Shadwell, who
had been originally a dubious friend.

Of Dryden's controversy with Settle we have already spoken fully; but we
may here add, that, in addition to former offences of a public and
private nature, Elkanah, in the Prologue to the "Emperor of Morocco,"
acted in March 1681-2, had treated Dryden with great irreverence.[16]
Shadwell had been for some time in good habits with Dryden; yet an early
difference of taste and practice in comedy, not only existed between
them, but was the subject of reciprocal debate, and something
approaching to rivalry.

Dryden, as we have seen, had avowed his preference of lively dialogue in
comedy to delineation of character, or, in other words, of wit and
repartee to what was then called humour. On this subject Shadwell early
differed from the laureate. Conscious of considerable powers in
observing nature, while he was deficient in that liveliness of fancy
which is necessary to produce vivacity of dialogue, Shadwell affected,
or perhaps entertained, a profound veneration for the memory of Ben
Jonson, and proposed him as his model in the representation of such
characters as were to be marked by _humour_, or an affectation of
singularity of manners, speech, and behaviour. Dryden, on the other
hand, was no great admirer either of Jonson's plays in general, or of
the low and coarse characters of vice and folly, in describing which lay
his chief excellency; and this opinion he had publicly intimated in the
"Essay of Dramatic Poesy." In the preface to the very first of
Shadwell's plays, printed in 1668, he takes occasion bitterly, and with
a direct application to Dryden, to assail the grounds of this criticism
and the comedies of the author who had made it.[17] If this petulance
produced any animosity, it was not lasting; for in the course of their
controversy, Dryden appeals to Shadwell, whether he had not rather
countenanced than impeded his first rise in public favour; and, in 1674,
they made common cause with Crowne to write those Remarks, which were to
demolish Settle's "Empress of Morocco." Even in 1670, while Shadwell
expresses the same dissent from Dryden's opinion concerning the merit of
Jonson's comedy, it is in very respectful terms, and with great
deference to his respected and admired friend, of whom, though he will
not say his is the best way of writing, he maintains his manner of
writing it is most excellent[18]. But the irreconcilable difference in
their taste soon after broke out in less seemly terms; for Shadwell
permitted himself to use some very irreverent expressions towards
Dryden's play of "Aureng-Zebe," in the Prologue and Epilogue to his
comedy of the "Virtuoso;" and in the Preface to the same piece he
plainly intimated, that he wanted nothing but a pension to enable him to
write as well as the poet-laureate.[19] This attack was the more
intolerable, as Dryden, in the Preface to that very play of "Aureng-Zebe,"
probably meant to include Shadwell among those contemporaries
who, even in his own judgment excelled him in comedy. In 1678 Dryden
accommodated with a prologue Shadwell's play of the "True Widow;" but to
write these occasional pieces was part of his profession, and the
circumstance does not prove that the breach between these rivals for
public applause was ever thoroughly healed; on the contrary, it seems
likely, that, in the case of Shadwell, as in that of Settle, political
hatred only gangrened a wound inflicted by literary rivalry. After their
quarrel became desperate, Dryden resumed his prologue, and adapted it to
a play by Afra Behn, called the "Widow Ranter, or Bacon in
Virginia."[20] Whatever was the progress of the dispute, it is certain
that Shadwell, as zealously attached to the Whig faction as Dryden to
the Tories, buckled on his armour among their other poetasters to
encounter the champion of royalty. His answer to "The Medal" is entitled
"The Medal of John Bayes:" it appeared in autumn 1681, and is
distinguished by scurrility, even among the scurrilous lampoons of
Settle, Care, and Pordage. Those, he coolly says, who know Dryden, know
there is not an untrue word spoke of him in the poem; although he is
there charged with the most gross and infamous crimes. Shadwell also
seems to have had a share in a lampoon, entitled "The Tory Poets," in
which both Dryden and Otway were grossly reviled.[21] On both occasions,
his satire was as clumsy as his overgrown person, and as brutally coarse
as his conversation: for Shadwell resembled Ben Jonson in his vulgar and
intemperate pleasures, as well as in his style of comedy and corpulence
of body.[22] Dryden seems to have thought, that such reiterated attacks,
from a contemporary of some eminence, whom he had once called friend,
merited a more severe castigation than could be administered in a
general satire. He therefore composed "Mac-Flecknoe, or a Satire on the
True Blue Protestant Poet, T.S., by the Author of Absalom and
Achitophel," which was published 4th October 1682. Richard Flecknoe,
from whom the piece takes its title, was so distinguished as a wretched
poet, that his name had become almost proverbial. Shadwell is
represented as the adopted son of this venerable monarch, who so long

  "In prose and verse was owned without dispute,
  Through all the realms of Nonsense absolute."

The solemn inauguration of Shadwell as his successor in this drowsy
kingdom, forms the plan of the poem; being the same which Pope
afterwards adopted on a broader canvas for his "Dunciad." The vices and
follies of Shadwell are not concealed, while the awkwardness of his
pretensions to poetical fame are held up to the keenest ridicule. In an
evil hour, leaving the composition of low comedy, in which he held an
honourable station, he adventured upon the composition of operas and
pastorals. On these the satirist falls without mercy; and ridicules, at
the same time, his pretensions to copy Ben Jonson:

  "Nor let false friends seduce thy mind to fame,
  By arrogating Jonson's hostile name;
  Let father Flecknoe fire thy mind with praise,
  And uncle Ogleby thy envy raise.
  Thou art my blood, where Jonson has no part:
  What share have we in nature or in art?
  Where did his wit on learning fix a brand,
  And rail at arts he did not understand?
  Where made he love in Prince Nicander's vein,
  Or swept the dust in Psyche's humble strain?"

This unmerciful satire was sold off in a very short time; and it seems
uncertain whether it was again published until 1084, when it appeared
with the author's name in Tonson's first Miscellany. It would seem that
Dryden did not at first avow it, though, as the title-page assigned it
to the author of "Absalom and Achitophel," we cannot believe Shadwell's
assertion, that he had denied it with oaths and imprecations. Dryden,
however, omits this satire in the [first [23]] printed list of his plays
and poems, along with the Eulogy on Cromwell. But he was so far from
disowning it, that, in his "Essay on Satire," he quotes "Mac-Flecknoe"
as an instance given by himself of the Varronian satire. Poor Shadwell
was extremely disturbed by this attack upon him; the more so, as he
seems hardly to have understood its tendency. He seriously complains,
that he is represented by Dryden as an Irishman, "when he knows that I
never saw Ireland till I was three-and-twenty years old, and was there
but for four months." He had understood Dryden's parable literally; so
true it is, that a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

"Mac-Flecknoe," though so cruelly severe, was not the only notice which
Shadwell received of Dryden's displeasure at his person and politics.
"Absalom and Achitophel," and "The Medal," having been so successful, a
second part to the first poem was resolved on, for the purpose of
sketching the minor characters of the contending factions. Dryden
probably conceiving that he had already done his part, only revised this
additional book, and contributed about two hundred lines. The body of
the poem was written by Nahum Tate, one of those second-rate bards, who,
by dint of pleonasm and expletive can find smooth lines if any one will
supply them with ideas. The Second Part of "Absalom and Achitophel" is,
however, much beyond his usual pitch, and exhibits considerable marks of
a careful revision by Dryden, especially in the satirical passages; for
the eulogy on the Tory chiefs is in the flat and feeble strain of Tate
himself, as is obvious when it is compared with the description of the
Green-Dragon Club, the character of Corah, and other passages exhibiting
marks of Dryden's hand.

But if the Second Part of "Absalom and Achitophel" fell below the first
in its general tone, the celebrated passage inserted by Dryden possessed
even a double portion of the original spirit. The victims whom he
selected out of the partisans of Monmouth and Shaftesbury for his own
particular severity, were Robert Ferguson, afterwards well known by the
name of The Plotter; Forbes; Johnson, author of the parallel between
James, Duke of York, and Julian the Apostate; but, above all, Settle and
Shadwell, whom, under the names of Doeg and Og, he has depicted in the
liveliest colours his poignant satire could afford. They who have
patience to look into the lampoons which these worthies had published
against Dryden, will, in reading his retort, be reminded of the combats
between the giants and knights of romance. His antagonists came on with
infinite zeal and fury, discharged their ill-aimed blows on every side,
and exhausted their strength in violent and ineffectual rage. But the
keen and trenchant blade of Dryden never makes a thrust in vain, and
never strikes but at a vulnerable point. This, we have elsewhere
remarked, is a peculiar attribute of his satire;[24] and it is difficult
for one assailed on a single ludicrous foible to make good his
respectability though possessed of a thousand valuable qualities; as it
was impossible for Achilles, invulnerable everywhere else, to survive
the wound which a dexterous archer had aimed at his heel. With regard to
Settle, there is a contempt in Dryden's satire which approaches almost
to good-humour, and plainly shows how far our poet was now from
entertaining those apprehensions of rivalship, which certainly dictated
his portion of the "Remarks on the Empress of Morocco." Settle had now
found his level, and Dryden no longer regarded him with a mixture of
rage and apprehension, but with more appropriate feelings of utter
contempt. This poor wight had acquired by practice, and perhaps from
nature, more of a poetical ear than most of his contemporaries were
gifted with. His "blundering melody," as Dryden terms it, is far sweeter
to the ear than the flat and ineffectual couplets of Tate; nor are his
verses always destitute of something approaching to poetic fancy and
spirit. He certainly, in his transposition of "Absalom and Achitophel,"
mimicked the harmony of his original with more success than was attained
by Shadwell, Buckingham or Pordage.[25] But in this facility of
versification all his merit began and ended; in our author's phrase,

  "Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
  Made still a blundering kind of melody;
  Spurred boldly on, and dashed though thick and thin,
  Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in;
  Free from all meaning, whether good or bad,
  And, in one word, heroically mad.
  He was too warm on picking-work to dwell,
  But faggoted his notions as they fell,
  And, if they rhymed and rattled, all was well."

Ere we take leave of Settle, it is impossible to omit mentioning his
lamentable conclusion; a tale often told and moralised upon, and in
truth a piece of very tragical mirth. Elkanah, we have seen, was at this
period a zealous Whig; nay, he was so far in the confidence of
Shaftesbury that, under his direction, and with his materials, he had
been intrusted to compose a noted libel against the Duke of York,
entitled, "The Character of a Popish Successor." Having a genius for
mechanics, he was also exalted to be manager of a procession for burning
the Pope; which the Whigs celebrated with great pomp, as one of many
artifices to inflame the minds of the people.[26] To this, and to the
fireworks which attended its solemnisation, Dryden alludes in the lines
to which Elkanah's subsequent disasters gave an air of prophecy:--

  "In fireworks give him leave to vent his spite,
  Those are the only servants he can write;
  The height of his ambition is, we know,
  But to be master of a puppet-show;
  On that one stage his works may yet appear,
  And a month's harvest keeps him all the year."

Notwithstanding the rank he held among the Whig authors,[27] Settle,
perceiving the cause of his patron Shaftesbury was gradually becoming
weaker, fairly abandoned him to his fate, and read a solemn recantation
of his political errors in a narrative published in 1683. The truth
seems to be, that honest Doeg was poet-laureate to the city, and earned
some emolument by composing verses for pageants and other occasions of
civic festivity; so that when the Tory interest resumed its ascendency
among the magistrates, he had probably no alternative but to relinquish
his principles or his post, and Elkanah, like many greater men, held the
former the easier sacrifice. Like all converts, he became outrageous in
his new faith, wrote a libel on Lord Russell a few days after his
execution; indited a panegyric on Judge Jefferies; and, being _tam Marte
quam Mercurio_, actually joined as a trooper the army which King James
encamped upon Hounslow Heath. After the Revolution, he is enumerated,
with our author and Tate, among those poets whose strains had been
stifled by that great event.[28] He continued, however, to be the
city-laureate;[29] but, in despite of that provision, was reduced by
want to write plays, like Ben Jonson's Littlewit, for the profane
_motions_, or puppet-shows, of Smithfield and Bartholomew fairs. Nay,
having proceeded thus far in exhibiting the truth of Dryden's
prediction, he actually mounted the stage in person among these wooden
performers, and combated St. George for England in a green dragon of his
own proper device. Settle was admitted into the Charterhouse in his old
age, and died there in 1723. The lines of Pope on poor Elkanah's fate
are familiar to every poetical reader:--

  "In Lud's old walls though long I ruled, renowned
  Far as loud Bow's stupendous bells resound;
  Though my own aldermen conferred the bays,
  To me committing their eternal praise,
  Their full-fed heroes, their pacific mayors,
  Their annual trophies and their monthly wars;
  Though long my party built on me their hopes,
  For writing pamphlets, and for roasting popes;
  Yet lo! in me what authors have to brag on!
  Reduced at last to hiss in my own dragon.
  Avert it, heaven! that thou, or Cibber, e'er
  Should wag a serpent-tail in Smithfield fair!
  Like the vile straw that's blown about the streets,
  The needy poet sticks to all he meets;
  Coached, carted, trod upon, now loose, now fast,
  And carried off in some dog's tail at last."

As Dryden was probably more apprehensive of Shadwell, who, though a
worse poet than Settle, has excelled even Dryden in the lower walks of
comedy, he has treated him with sterner severity. His person, his
morals, his manners and his politics, all that had escaped or been but
slightly touched upon in "Mac-Flecknoe," are bitterly reviewed in the
character of Og; and there probably never existed another poet, who, at
the distance of a month, which intervened between the publication of the
two poems, could resume an exhausted theme with an energy which gave it
all the charms of novelty. Shadwell did not remain silent beneath the
lash; but his clamorous exclamations only tended to make his castigation
more ludicrous.[30]

The Second Part of "Absalom and Achitophel" was followed by the
"_Religio Laici_," a poem which Dryden published in the same month of
November 1682. Its tendency, although of a political nature, is so
different from that of the satires, that it will be most properly
considered when we can place it in contrast to the "Hind and Panther."
It was addressed to Henry Dickinson, a young gentleman, who had just
published a translation of Simon's "Critical History of the New
Testament."

As the publication of the two Parts of "Absalom and Achitophel," "The
Medal," and "Mac-Flecknoe," all of a similar tone, and rapidly
succeeding each other, gave to Dryden, hitherto chiefly known as a
dramatist, the formidable character of an inimitable satirist, we may
here pause to consider their effect upon English poetry. The witty
Bishop Hall had first introduced into our literature that species of
poetry; which, though its legitimate use be to check vice and expose
folly, is so often applied by spleen or by faction to destroy domestic
happiness, by assailing private character. Hall possessed a good ear for
harmony; and, living in the reign of Elizabeth, might have studied it in
Spenser, Fairfax, and other models. But from system, rather than
ignorance or inability, he chose to be "hard of conceit, and harsh of
style," in order that his poetry might correspond with the sharp, sour,
and crabbed nature of his theme.[31] Donne, his successor, was still
more rugged in his versification, as well as more obscure in his
conceptions and allusions. The satires of Cleveland (as we have indeed
formerly noticed) are, if possible, still harsher and more strained in
expression than those of Donne. Butler can hardly be quoted as an
example of the sort of satire we are treating of. "Hudibras" is a
burlesque tale, in which the measure is intentionally and studiously
rendered as ludicrous as the characters and incidents. Oldham, who
flourished in Dryden's time, and enjoyed his friendship, wrote his
satires in the crabbed tone of Cleveland and Donne. Dryden, in the copy
of verses dedicated to his memory, alludes to this deficiency, and seems
to admit the subject as an apology:--

  "O early ripe! to thy abundant store
  What could advancing age have added more!
  It might (what nature never gives the young)
  Have taught the numbers of thy native tongue.
  But satire needs not those, and wit will shine
  Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line."

Yet the apology which he admitted for Oldham, Dryden disdained to make
use of himself. He did not, as has been said of Horace, wilfully untune
his harp when he commenced satirist. Aware that a wound may be given
more deeply with a burnished than with a rusty blade, he bestowed upon
the versification of his satires the same pains which he had given to
his rhyming plays and serious poems. He did not indeed, for that would
have been pains misapplied, attempt to smooth his verses into the
harmony of those in which he occasionally celebrates female beauty; but
he gave them varied tone, correct rhyme, and masculine energy, all which
had hitherto been strangers to the English satire.

Thus, while Dryden's style resembled that of Juvenal rather than Horace,
he may claim a superiority, for uniform and undeviating dignity, over
the Roman satirist. The age, whose appetite for scandal had been
profusely fed by lampoons and libels, now learned, that there was a more
elevated kind of satire, in which poignancy might be united with
elegance, and energy of thought with harmony of versification. The
example seems to have produced a strong effect. No poet, not even Settle
(for even the worst artist will improve from beholding a masterpiece),
afterwards conceived he had sufficiently accomplished his task by
presenting to the public, thoughts, however witty or caustic he might
deem them, clothed in the hobbling measure of Donne or Cleveland; and
expression and harmony began to be consulted, in satire, as well as
sarcastic humour or powerful illustration.

"Mac-Flecknoe," in some degree, differs from the other satires which
Dryden published at this time. It is not confined to the description of
character, but exhibits an imaginary course of incidents, in which the
principal personage takes a ludicrous share. In this it resembles
"Hudibras;" and both are quoted by Dryden himself as examples of the
Varronian satire. But there was this pointed difference, that Butler's
poem is burlesque, and Dryden's mock-heroic. "Mac-Flecknoe" is, I rather
believe, the first poem in the English language, in which the dignity of
a harmonised and lofty style is employed, not only to excite pleasure in
itself, but to increase, by contrast, the comic effect of the scenes
which it narrates; the subject being ludicrous, while the verse is
noble. The models of satire afforded by Dryden, as they have never been
equalled by any succeeding poet, were in a tone of excellence superior
far to all that had preceded them.

These reflections on the nature of Dryden's satires, have, in some
degree, interrupted our account of his political controversies. Not only
did he pour forth these works, one after another, with a fertility which
seemed to imply delight in his new labour; but, as if the spirit of the
time had taught him speed, he found leisure to oppose the Whigs in the
theatre, where the audience was now nearly as much divided as the
kingdom by the contending factions. Settle had produced the tragedy of
"Pope Joan," Shadwell the comedy of the "Lancashire Witches," to expose
to hatred and ridicule the religion of the successor to the crown. Otway
and D'Urfey, Crowne and Southerne, names unequal in fame, vied in
producing plays against the Whigs, which might counterbalance the effect
of these popular dramas. A licence similar to that of Aristophanes was
introduced on the English stage; and living personages were exhibited
under very slight disguises.[32] In the prologues and epilogues, which
then served as a sort of moral to the plays, the veil, thin as it was,
was completely raised, and the political analogies pointed out to such
of the audience as might otherwise have been too dull to apprehend them.
In this sharp though petty war Dryden bore a considerable share. His
necessities obliged him, among other modes of increasing his income, to
accept of a small pecuniary tribute for furnishing prologues on
remarkable occasions, or for new plays; and his principles determined
their tendency.[33] But this was not all the support which his party
expected, and which he afforded them on the theatre, even while
labouring in their service in a different department.

When Dryden had but just finished his "_Religio Laici_," Lee, who had
assisted in the play of "Oedipus," claimed Dryden's promise to requite
the obligation. It has been already noticed, that Dryden had, in the
year succeeding the Restoration, designed a play on the subject of the
Duke of Guise; and he has informed us he had preserved one or two of the
scenes. These, therefore, were revised, and inserted in the new play, of
which Dryden wrote the first scene, the whole fourth act, and great part
of the fifth. Lee composed the rest of "The Duke Of Guise." The general
parallel between the League in France and the Covenant in England, was
too obvious to escape early notice; but the return of Monmouth to
England against the king's express command, in order to head the
opposition, perhaps the insurrection, of London, presented a still
closer analogy to the entry of the Duke of Guise into Paris, under
similar circumstances, on the famous day of the barricades. Of this
remarkable incident, the united authors of "The Duke of Guise" naturally
availed themselves; though with such precaution, that almost the very
expressions of the scene are taken from the prose of Davila. Yet the
plot, though capable of an application so favourable for the royal
party, contained circumstances of offence to it. If the parallel between
Guise and Monmouth was on the one hand felicitous, as pointing out the
nature of the Duke's designs, the moral was revolting, as seeming to
recommend the assassination of Charles's favourite son. The king also
loved Monmouth to the very last; and was slow and reluctant in
permitting his character to be placed in a criminal or odious point of
view.[34] The play, therefore, though ready for exhibition before
midsummer 1682, remained in the hands of Arlington the lord-chamberlain
for two months without being licensed for representation. But during
that time the scene darkened. The king had so far suppressed his
tenderness for Monmouth, as to authorise his arrest at Stafford; and the
influence of the Duke of York at court became daily more predominant.
Among other evident tokens that no measures were hence-forward to be
kept between the king and Monmouth, the representation of "The Duke of
Guise" was at length authorised.

The two companies of players, after a long and expensive warfare, had
now united their forces; on which occasion Dryden furnished them with a
prologue, full of violent Tory principles. By this united company "The
Duke of Guise" was performed on the 30th December 1682. It was printed
with a dedication to Hyde, Earl of Rochester, subscribed by both
authors, but evidently the work of Dryden. It is written in a tone of
defiance to the Whig authors, who had assailed the dedicators, it
alleges, "like footpads in the dark," though their blows had done little
harm, and the objects of their malice yet lived to vindicate their
loyalty in open day. The play itself has as determined a political
character as the dedication. Besides the general parallel between the
leaguers and the fanatical sectaries, and the more delicate, though not
less striking, connection between the story of Guise and of Monmouth,
there are other collateral allusions in the piece to the history of that
unfortunate nobleman, and to the state of parties. The whole character
of Marmoutiere, high-spirited, loyal, and exerting all her influence to
deter Guise from the prosecution of his dangerous schemes, corresponds
to that of Anne, Duchess of Monmouth.[35] The love too which the king
professes to Marmoutiere, and which excites the jealousy of Guise, may
bear a remote and delicate allusion to that partiality which the Duke of
York is said to have entertained for the wife of his nephew.[36]  The
amiable colours in which Marmoutiere is painted, were due to the Duchess
of Monmouth, Dryden's especial patroness. Another more obvious and more
offensive parallel existed between the popular party in the city, with
the Whig sheriffs at their head, and that of the _Echevins_, or sheriffs
of Paris, violent demagogues and adherents to the League, and who, in
the play, are treated with great contumely by Grillon and the royal
guards. The tumults which had taken place at the election of these
magistrates were warm in the recollection of the city; and the
commitment of the ex-sheriffs, Shute and Pilkington, to the Tower, under
pretext of a riot, was considered as the butt of the poet's satire.
Under these impressions the Whigs made a violent opposition to the
representation of the piece, even when the king gave it his personal
countenance. And although, in despite of them, "The Duke of Guise" so
far succeeded, as "to be frequently acted, and never without a
considerable attendance," we may conclude from these qualified
expressions of the author himself, that the play was never eminently
popular. He, who writes for a party, can only please at most one half of
his audience.

It was not to be expected that, at a time so very critical, a public
representation, including such bold allusions, or rather parallels,
should pass without critical censure. "The Duke of Guise" was attacked
by Dryden's old foe Shadwell, in some verses, entitled, "A Lenten
Prologue refused by the Players;"[37] and more formally, in "Reflections
on the pretended Parallel in the Play called the Duke of Guise." In this
pamphlet Shadwell seems to have been assisted by a gentleman of the
Temple, so zealous for the popular cause, that Dryden says he was
detected disguised in a livery-gown, proffering his vote at the
Common-hall. Thomas Hunt, a barrister,[38] likewise stepped forth on
this occasion; and in his "Defence of the Charter of London," then
challenged by the famous process of _Quo Warranto_, he accuses Dryden of
having prepared the way for that arbitrary step, by the degrading
representation of their magistrates executed in effigy upon the stage.
Dryden thought these pamphlets of consequence enough to deserve an
answer, and published, soon after, "The Vindication of the Duke of
Guise." In perusing the controversy, we may admire two circumstances,
eminently characteristical of the candour with which such controversies
are usually maintained: First, the anxiety with which the critics labour
to fix upon Dryden a disrespectful parallel between Charles II. and
Henry II. [III.] of France, which certainly our author did not propose
to carry farther than their common point of situation; and secondly, the
labour with which he disavows what he unquestionably did intend,--a
parallel between the rebellious conduct of Monmouth and of Guise. The
Vindication is written in a tone of sovereign contempt for the
adversaries, particularly for Shadwell. Speaking of Thomas Hunt, Dryden
says,--"Even this their celebrated writer knows no more of style and
English than the Northern dictator; as if dulness and clumsiness were
fatal to the name of _Tom_. It is true, he is a fool in three languages
more than the poet; for, they say, 'he understands Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew,' from all which, to my certain knowledge, I acquit the other. Og
may write against the king, if he pleases, so long as he drinks for him,
and his writings will never do the government so much harm, as his
drinking does it good; for true subjects will not be much perverted by
his libels; but the wine-duties rise considerably by his claret. He has
often called me an atheist in print; I would believe more charitably of
him, and that he only goes the broad way, because the other is too
narrow for him. He may see, by this, I do not delight to meddle with his
course of life, and his immoralities, though I have a long bead-roll of
them. I have hitherto contented myself with the ridiculous part of him,
which is enough, in all conscience, to employ one man; even without the
story of his late fall at the Old Devil, where he broke no ribs, because
the hardness of the stairs could reach no bones; and, for my part, I do
not wonder how he came to fall, for I have always known him heavy: the
miracle is, how he got up again. I have heard of a sea captain as fat as
he, who, to escape arrests, would lay himself flat upon the ground, and
let the bailiffs carry him to prison, if they could. If a messenger or
two, nay, we may put in three or four, should come, he has friendly
advertisement how to escape them. But to leave him, who is not worth any
further consideration, now I have done laughing at him,--would every man
knew his own talent, and that they, who are only born for drinking,
would let both poetry and prose alone!" This was the last distinct and
prolonged animadversion which our author bestowed upon his corpulent
antagonist.

Soon after this time Dryden wrote a biographical preface to Plutarch's
Lives, of which a new translation, by several hands, was in the press.
The dedication is addressed to the Duke of Ormond, the Barzillai of
"Absalom and Achitophel," whom Charles, after a long train of cold and
determined neglect, had in emergency recalled to his favour and his
councils. The first volume of Plutarch's Lives, with Dryden's Life of
the author, appeared in 1683.

About the same time, the king's express command engaged Dryden in a
work, which may be considered as a sort of illustration of the doctrines
laid down in the "Vindication of the Duke of Guise." It was the
translation of Maimbourg's "History of the League," expressly composed
to draw a parallel between the Huguenots of France and the Leaguers, as
both equal enemies of the monarchy. This comparison was easily
transferred to the sectaries of England, and the association proposed by
Shaftesbury. The work was published with unusual solemnity of title-page
and frontispiece; the former declaring that the translation was made by
his Majesty's command; the latter representing Charles on his throne,
surrounded by emblems expressive of hereditary and indefeasible
right.[39] The dedication to the king contains sentiments which savour
strongly of party violence, and even ferocity. The forgiving disposition
of the king is, according to the dedicator, the encouragement of the
conspirators. Like Antaeus they rise refreshed from a simple overthrow.
"These sons of earth are never to be trusted in their mother element;
they must be hoisted into the air, and strangled." Thus exasperated were
the most gentle tempers in these times of doubt and peril. The rigorous
tone adopted, confirms the opinion of those historians who observe,
that, after the discovery of the Rye-house Plot, Charles was fretted out
of his usual debonair ease, and became more morose and severe than had
been hitherto thought consistent with his disposition.

This translation was to be the last service which Dryden was to render
his good-humoured, selfish, and thoughtless patron. While the laureate
was preparing for the stage the opera of "Albion and Albanius," intended
to solemnise the triumph of Charles over the Whigs, or, as the author
expressed it, the double restoration of his sacred Majesty, the king
died of an apoplexy upon the 6th February 1684-5. His death opened to
many, and to Dryden among others, new hopes, and new prospects, which
were, in his instance, doomed to terminate in disappointment and
disgrace. We may therefore pause, and review the private life of the
poet during the period which has occupied our last Sections.

The vigour and rapidity with which Dryden poured forth his animated
satire, plainly intimates, that his mind was pleased with the exercise
of that formidable power. It was more easy for him, he has himself told
us, to write with severity, than with forbearance; and indeed, where is
the expert swordsman, who does not delight in the flourish of his
weapon? Neither could this self-complacent feeling be much allayed, by
the vague and abusive ribaldry with which his satire was repaid. This
was natural to the controversy, was no more than he expected and was
easily retorted with terrible interest. "As for knave," says he, "and
sycophant and rascal, and impudent, and devil, and old serpent, and a
thousand such good morrows, I take them to be only names of parties; and
could return murderer, and cheat, and whig-napper, and sodomite; and, in
short, the goodly number of the seven deadly sins, with all their
kindred and relations, which are names of parties too; but saints will
be saints in spite of villainy." With such feelings, we may believe
Dryden's rest was little disturbed by the litter of libels against
him:--

  "Sons of a day just buoyant on the flood,
  Then numbered with the puppies in the mud."

But he who keenly engages in political controversy must not only
encounter the vulgar abuse, which he may justly contemn, but the altered
eye of friends, whose regard is chilled, or alienated. That Dryden
sustained such misfortune we cannot doubt, when he informs us, that, out
of the large party in opposition, comprehending, doubtless, many men of
talent and eminence, who were formerly familiar with him, he had, during
the course of a whole year, only spoken to four, and to those but
casually and cursorily, and only to express a wish, that the times might
come when the names of Whig and Tory might be abolished, and men live
together as they had done before they were introduced.

Neither did the protecting zeal of his party-friends compensate for the
loss of those whom Dryden had alienated in their service. True it is,
that a host of Tory rhymers came forward with complimentary verses to
the author of "Absalom and Achitophel," and of "The Medal." But of all
payment, that in kind is least gratifying to a poverty-struck bard, and
the courtly patrons of Dryden were in no haste to make him more
substantial requital. A gratuity of an hundred broad pieces is said to
have been paid him by Charles for one of his satires; but no permanent
provision was made for him. He was coolly left to increase his pittance
by writing occasional pieces; and it was probably with this view that he
arranged for publication a miscellaneous collection of poetry, which he
afterwards continued. It was published for Tonson in 1683-4, and
contained several versions of Epistles from Ovid, and translations of
detached pieces of Virgil, Horace, and Theocritus, with some smaller
pieces by Dryden himself, and a variety of poems by other hands. The
Epistles had appeared in 1680, in a version of the original by several
hands, to which Dryden also contributed an introductory discourse on
translation. Contrary to our author's custom, the miscellany appeared
without either preface or dedication.

The miscellany, among other minor poems of Dryden, contained many of his
occasional prologues and epilogues, the composition of which his
necessity had rendered so important a branch of income, that, in the
midst of his splendour of satirical reputation, the poet was obliged to
chaffer about the scanty recompence which he drew from such petty
sources. Such a circumstance attended the commencement of his friendship
with Southerne. That poet then opening his dramatic career with the play
of the "Loyal Brother," came, as was usual, to request a prologue from
Dryden, and to offer him the usual compliment of five guineas. But the
laureate demurred, and insisted upon double the sum, "not out of
disrespect," he added, "to you, young man; but the players have had my
goods too cheap." Hence Southerne, who was peculiarly fortunate in his
dramatic revenue, is designed by Pope as

      "Tom sent down to raise
  The price of prologues and of plays."[40]

It may seem surprising that Dryden should be left to make an object of
such petty gains, when, labouring for the service of government, he had
in little more than twelve months produced both Parts of "Absalom and
Achitophel," "The Medal," "Mac-Flecknoe," "_Religio Laici_" and "The
Duke of Guise." But this was not the worst; for, although his pension as
poet-laureate was apparently all the encouragement which he received
from the crown, so ill-regulated were the finances of Charles, so
expensive his pleasures, and so greedy his favourites, that our author,
shortly after finishing these immortal poems, was compelled to sue for
more regular payment of that very pension, and for a more permanent
provision, in the following affecting Memorial, addressed to Hyde, Earl
of Rochester:--"I would plead," says he, "a little merit, and some
hazards of my life from the common enemies; my refusing advantages
offered by them, and neglecting my beneficial studies, for the king's
service; but I only think I merit not to starve. I never applied myself
to any interest contrary to your lordship's; and, on some occasions,
perhaps not known to you, have not been unserviceable to the memory and
reputation of my lord, your father.[41] After this, my lord, my
conscience assures me, I may write boldly, though I cannot speak to you.
I have three sons, growing to man's estate. I breed them all up to
learning, beyond my fortune; but they are too hopeful to be neglected,
though I want. Be pleased to look on me with an eye of compassion: some
small employment would render my condition easy. The king is not
unsatisfied of me; the duke has often promised me his assistance; and
your lordship is the conduit through which their favours pass. Either in
the customs, or the appeals of the excise, or some other way, means
cannot be wanting, if you please to have the will. _'Tis enough for one
age to have neglected Mr. Cowley, and starved Mr. Butler_; but neither
of them had the happiness to live till your lordship's ministry. In the
meantime, be pleased to give me a gracious and a speedy answer to my
present request of half a year's pension for my necessities. I am going
to write somewhat by his Majesty's command,[42] and cannot stir into the
country for my health and studies till I secure my family from want."

We know that this affecting remonstrance was in part successful; for
long afterwards, he says, in allusion to this period, "Even from a bare
treasury, my success has been contrary to that of Mr. Cowley; and
Gideon's fleece has there been moistened, when all the ground was dry."
But in the admission of this claim to the more regular payment of his
pension, was comprehended all Rochester's title to Dryden's gratitude.
The poet could not obtain the small employment which he so earnestly
solicited; and such was the recompense of the merry monarch and his
counsellors, to one whose productions had strengthened the pillars of
his throne, as well as renovated the literary taste of the nation.[43]


FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mulgrave was created lieutenant of Yorkshire and governor of Hull,
when Monmouth was deprived of these and other honours.

[2] See vol. x.

[3] This is objected to Dryden by one of his antagonists: "Nor could
ever Shimei be thought to have cursed David more bitterly, than he
permits his friend to blaspheme the Roman priesthood in his epilogue to
the 'Spanish Friar.' In which play he has himself acted his own part
like a true younger son of Noah, as may be easily seen in the first
edition of that comedy, which would not pass muster a second time
without emendations and corrections."--_The Revolter_, 1687, p. 29.

[4] See vol. ix.

[5] See vol. ix. This piece, entitled "Absalom's Conspiracy or the
Tragedy of Treason," is printed in the same volume.

[6] See vol. ix.

[7] Lord Grey says in his narrative, "After the dissolution of the
Oxford parliament, we were all very peaceably inclined, and nothing
passed amongst us that summer of importance, which I can call to mind: I
think my Lord Shaftesbury was sent to the Tower just before the long
vacation; and the Duke of Monmouth, Mr. Montague, Sir Thomas Armstrong,
and myself, went to Tunbridge immediately after his lordship's
imprisonment, where we laid aside the thoughts of disturbing the peace
of the government for those of diverting ourselves."

[8] He usually distinguishes Dryden by his "Rehearsal" title of Bayes;
and, among many other oblique expressions of malevolence, he has this
note:--

"To see the incorrigibleness of our poets in their pedantic manner,
their vanity, defiance of criticism, their rhodomontade, and poetical
bravado, we need only turn to our famous poet-laureat (the very Mr.
Bayes himself), in one of his latest and most valued pieces, writ many
years after the ingenious author of the 'Rehearsal' had drawn his
picture. 'I have been listening (says our poet, in his Preface to 'Don
Sebastian'), what objections had been made against the conduct of the
play, but found them all so trivial, that if I should name them, a true
critic would imagine that I played booty. Some are pleased to say the
writing is dull; but _aedatum habet de se loquatur._ Others, that the
double poison is unnatural; let the common received opinion, and
Ausonius's famous epigram, answer that. Lastly, a more ignorant sort of
creatures than either of the former maintain, that the character of
Dorax is not only unnatural, but inconsistent with itself; let them read
the play, and think again. A longer reply is what those cavillers
deserve not. But I will give them and their fellows to understand, that
the Earl of ---- was pleased to read the tragedy twice over before it
was acted and did me the favour to send me word, that I had written
beyond any of my former plays, and that he was displeased anything
should be cut away. If I have not reason to prefer his single judgment
to a whole faction, let the world be judge; for the opposition is the
same with that of Lucan's hero against an army, _concurrere bellum atque
virum_. I think I may modestly conclude,' etc.

"Thus he goes on, to the very end, in the self-same strain. Who, after
this, can ever say of the 'Rehearsal' author, that his picture of our
poet was overcharged, or the national humour wrong described?"

[9] See vol. ix.


[10] See some extracts from this piece, vol. ix.

[11]
  "How well this Hebrew name with sense doth sound,
  _A fool's my brother_,[11a] though in wit profound!
  Most wicked wits are the devil's chiefest tools,
  Which, ever in the issue, God befools.
  Can they compare, vile varlet, once hold true,
  Of the loyal lord, and this disloyal Jew?
  Was e'er our English earl under disgrace,
  And, unconscionable; put out of place?
  Hath he laid lurking in his country-house
  To plot rebellions, as one factious?
  Thy bog-trot bloodhounds hunted have this stag,
  Yet cannot fasten their foul fangs,--they flag.
  Why didst not _thou_ bring in thy evidence
  With them, to rectify the brave jury's sense,
  And so prevent the _ignoramus_?--nay,
  Thou wast cock-sure he wou'd he damned for aye,
  Without thy presence;--thou wast then employed
  To brand him 'gainst he came to be destroyed:
  Forehand preparing for the hangman's axe,
  Had not the witnesses been found so lax."

[11a] _Achi_, my brother, and _tophel_, a fool.--_Orig. Note_.

[12] Vol. ix.

[13] He was the son of Dr. John Pordage, minister of Bradfield expelled
his charge for insufficiency in the year 1646. Among other charges
against him were the following, which, extraordinary as they are, he
does not seem to have denied:

"That he hath very frequent and familiar converse with angels.

"That a great dragon came into his chamber with a tail of eight yards
long, four great teeth, and did spit fire at him; and that he contended
with the dragon.

"That his own angel came and stood by him while he was expostulating
with the dragon; and the angel came in his own shape and fashion, the
same clothes, bands, and cuffs, the same bandstrings; and that his angel
stood by him and upheld him.

"That Mrs. Pordage and Mrs. Flavel had their angels standing by them
also, Mrs. Pordage singing sweetly, and keeping time upon her breast;
and that his children saw the spirits coming into the house, and said,
Look there, father; and that the spirits did after come into the
chamber, and drew the curtains when they were in bed.

"That the said Mr. Pordage confessed, that a strong enchantment was upon
him, and that the devil did appear to him in the shape of Everard, and
in the shape of a fiery dragon; and the whole roof of the house was full
of spirits."--_State Trials_.

[14] How little Dryden valued these nicknames appears from a passage in
the "Vindication of the Duke of Guise:"--"Much less am I concerned at
the noble name of Bayes; that is a brat so like his own father, that he
cannot be mistaken for anybody else. They might as reasonably have
called Tom Sternhold Virgil, and the resemblance would have held as
well." Vol. vii.

[15]
    "As when a swarm of gnats at eventide
    Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise,
  Their murmuring small trompetts sownden wide,
    Whiles in the aire their clustring army flies,
    That as a cloud doth seeme to dim the skies;
  No man nor beast may rest or take repast
    For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries,
  Till the fierce northern wind with blustring blast
  Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast."